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A man was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her then-husband – and has had his jail term raised to 10 years.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of five men and four women, accompanied by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her home in the south of France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a family man, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an online chatroom named “without her knowledge”, where the husband was looking for men to come to his home to rape his wife once he had drugged her into a deep sleep.

We trust the jury will say loud and clear that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not given by another,” said the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is received personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Background

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and bringing in dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the town of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to contest his verdict. He was initially given a sentence to nine years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to ten years.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had first sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to assault the victim, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the retrial, told the court that the accused had known his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to assert he was blameless and had not committed rape, contending that because the victim's husband had invited him into the room, his behavior had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, comatose and snoring in a deep sleep, while a grinning Dogan performed assault on several occasions over a period of what police said was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at peril of death by choking. The state's case said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan told the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to hurt that lady.”

Victim's Response

The survivor, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters present to support her, addressed Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you admit you violated me? It’s a crime to assault an unconscious woman. How could I have give you agreement? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, speaking to the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The community is possibly in the course of that, possibly motivated by the societal understanding resulting from the publication of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

Sie told Dogan: “While you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole unpleasant societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was originated from Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his father was violent and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of 10. When Dogan was 17 he was stopped by authorities for dealing drugs and his father evicted him the family house. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had repeated intimate relations beyond their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his stressful life. Dogan had informed a court psychologist that once a year he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His legal representatives informed the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the stress of the initial proceedings.